Today is an exceptional day: sunny without any clouds. I am going to fly from Wanaka to Milford Sound with Wanaka Flightseeing.

This scenic flight route is the best because it flies over Mount Inspiring, the Olivine Ice plateau, impressive glaciers and snow capped mountains. Other companies fly from or to Queenstown but the scenary is not as spectacular.

Departure is at 11am at the airport. I am going with a family from South Korea. After a security briefing, we land off and the show starts :-)

At first, we can see Lake Wanaka, the Peninsula, Lake Hawea, the islands and of course the town of Wanaka. Our pilot guides us to the different high lights of the journey.

We then see the Treble Cone ski slopes and enter Mount Aspiring National Park. This Alpine range of mountains includes wonders of nature such as the 3030m high Mount Aspiring, the Olivine Ice Plateau, deep glacier icefalls, alpine lakes, etc. We fly at an altitude of 7500 feets or almost 2000m and the view is great! I took many double shot for Stereo 3D purposes.

We then approach Fiordland National Park and the West Coast shore line and we fly over a the Red Hills, uranium has been found there but no mining is allowed since the whole area has been classified as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. Streches of beautiful and long beaches lies below us.

Our pilot then turns left towards Milford Sound. The view is spectacular and you can see how vertical the granit walls of the Fiords are. Seeing it from above is a unique experience and it's much more impressive than from sea level during the boat cruise.

We then land smoothly at the Milford Sound airport and a coach brings us to the cruise terminal. This 2 hour cruise is part of the package offered by Wanaka Flightseeing and I am glad to do it again: I love Milford Sound! Today is such a beautiful day without any clouds and this is the occasion to shot dozens of pictures. This time I am aboard a smaller vessel. The atmosphere is more relaxed and we are offered tea or coffee (I brought my own picnic this time). Thanks to it's size, the boat could get us under the cliff! We met a group of dozens of wild dolphins. They had fun preceeding the boat at full speed! We saw some seals and the scenary was spectacular: it's really worth going to Milford Sound a second time.

After the cruise, a coach brings us to the airport for our return flight. Time for a picture with the pilot and the plane. This time we see Milford Sound from East to West.

This time, we fly over the famous Milford Track. The scenary if impressive: there are many more fiords than Milford Sound. The difference is that they are not going to the sea this time.

We then fly over the spectacular 580m high Sutherland Falls (New Zealand's highest), the Dart River Valley and Glenorchy. At a distance we can see Lake Te Anau and Lake Wakatipu before landing at Wanaka Airport at 3.30pm.

I really had a wonderful time, the scenary was stunning and the staff awsome. In my opinion, this Wanaka Milford Sound route is worth every minute and is much better than the Queestown-Milford Sound route.

Note that if you wish to do the underwater observatory along with your cruise, you should speak about it with your guide. Sometime the water is not very clear at Milford Sound so it's better to seek advice.